


Their Last Visit

by wynnebat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Pregnancy, Shell Cottage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-07
Updated: 2012-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 19:39:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3703235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fleur would sell Shell Cottage in a heartbeat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Their Last Visit

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Your Favourite Couple Competition](https://www.fanfiction.net/topic/44309/54923473/1/).

Bill and Fleur's summer cottage stood alone on a cliff overlooking the sea, its walls embedded with shells and whitewashed. It was a lonely and beautiful place, their summer cottage. Fleur was glad they didn't live by the seaside permanently, even though she loved the smell and sound of the sea. Too many memories of the second war rested inside the cottage, like a dark cloud that never vanished, like a Dark Mark in the air. Even as Fleur sat on the edge of the cliff, bathing in the sounds of the constant ebb and flow of the sea, she saw the dead and the scarred when she closed her eyes. Beautiful as it was, Fleur would sell the cottage in a heartbeat.

"I would zell zis cottage in a 'eartbeat, Bill, if your mozzer were not so pigheaded!" she said to her husband, hearing his footsteps on the rocks.

Bill sat down next to her left, wrapping an arm around Fleur's shoulders. Fleur settled into Bill, and realized she hadn't noticed the cold before she had Bill's warm side to compare it to. "Fleur, Mum's a bit...sentimental about this house. It belonged to her sister, who died in the war, and she would take us kids here when we were children." Then quieter and with a bit of sarcasm, he muttered, "Besides, we can't sell off a wedding gift."

"Zis wedding gift was worth less zan ze cost of repairs for eet," Fleur grumbled, but smiled at Bill to show she wasn't truly angry. "You came 'ere as a child?"

Bill shrugged and started sifting through the sand near his hand, a gesture Fleur noted as nervousness. "Not exactly," Bill began, his voice a little scratchy, and Fleur rubbed his throat with her free hand. "I was eleven when a kid named Harry Potter vanquished You-Know-Who. My childhood was filled with a lot of hiding from Death Eaters, since they knew Mum and Dad were in the Order. It was a time of fear, especially for a child. I didn't even go to Diagon Alley until I was eleven; it wasn't safe."

"Zis cottage?" Fleur asked.

"I only visited it after the war, after Mum's sister died. They didn't get along—Aunt Maple was neutral in the war, staunchly so. Wouldn't get near Order members if it killed her. Even the children of Order members."

Fleur nodded, taking his hand in hers in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. She couldn't emphasize with her husband; Fleur couldn't remember the first war, and even if she did, she wouldn't have bad memories. The war never reached France. And when the war started again, she joined by choice, not by circumstance.

"Zis place makes us, what eez ze word, melancholy? Let's go 'ome, Bill." Fleur slipped out of Bills embrace and stood up. She made a show of trying to pull Bill up by his hand, though she couldn't bring him up without the aid of a featherlight charm or Bill's help, and pecked him on the lips when he gave in.

Hand in hand, they walked back to Shell Cottage for their belongings.

"I should think our child won't visit zis place," Fleur decided, nose a little higher in the air, lips twitching in amusement, waiting for Bill to catch on.

"Probably n—child?" he exclaimed, smiling widely and staring down at her stomach. "You're serious?"

Fleur laughed, tugging him into the cottage for the last time. She hadn't planned to tell Bill the news at this dreary place, but the time was as good as any time. "Let's celebrate at 'ome, Bill. Perhaps your mozzer will be zo happy about grandchildren, she won't notice us selling ze cottage!"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
